Babylon Labs has submitted a temperature-check proposal to integrate with Aave V4, aiming to let users lock native BTC on Bitcoin and borrow assets via Aave without wrapped BTC, bridges, or custodians. The design uses Taproot-based vault scripts and introduces a non-transferable accounting asset, vaultBTC, to represent BTC locked in Babylon vaults as collateral within approved Aave contracts. Aave founder Stani Kulechov endorsed the idea on X and said Babylon has more than $4bn in BTC staked that could eventually be used as collateral.

$ESPORTS dropped more than 92% on 25 May, erasing over $110m in market value as commentators pointed to heavy token transfers and exchange deposits ahead of the move. The price slid from around $0.69 to nearly $0.05 in one daily candle, with liquidations above $6m including more than $5.2m in longs. The project team had not publicly addressed the allegations at the time of writing.

Inertia said an exploit drained about $152,000 after attackers inflated roETH collateral pricing and borrowed against it across five lending markets. The protocol's post-mortem, published on 25 May, said the incident impacted USDC, INIT, sINIT, TIA, and roTIA during an attack window of roughly 1 hour and 13 minutes.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has delayed a plan that could have opened the door to trading tokenized versions of U.S. stocks. A Bloomberg report dated 22 May said internal concerns and industry pushback slowed the proposal, as the SEC continues weighing how crypto-based equity products fit within existing securities laws. Recent SEC guidance and remarks from Commissioner Hester Peirce indicate the sharper focus may be on synthetic stock-exposure products rather than tokenized equities tied directly to underlying shares.

Blockchain.com has confidentially filed for a US initial public offering, signaling another attempt by infrastructure-focused firms to re-enter public markets. The company said on 21 May it submitted a draft Form S-1 to the US SEC for a proposed IPO of its Class A ordinary shares, without disclosing share count or valuation. The filing arrives as IPO discussions intensify across AI, fintech, and crypto infrastructure after a prolonged slowdown.

A CoinGecko report says leveraged crypto trading has been shifting toward perpetual DEXs, which increased their share of trading volume and open interest through 2025. The perp DEX-to-CEX volume ratio rose from 3% in January 2025 to a 13% peak later in 2025, then eased to about 10% by April 2026, while Hyperliquid recorded roughly $190.28bn in April volume.

Ethena's latest reserve dashboard update dated 20 May shows USDe's backing tilting toward DeFi lending and liquid stablecoin reserves, indicating a more conservative posture than earlier derivatives-heavy yield tactics. DeFi lending represents about 47.7% (around $2bn) of backing, while liquid stablecoins make up about 52.7%, alongside a reported 101.55% backing ratio versus roughly $4.45bn USDe supply.

A consortium of European lenders building a euro-pegged stablecoin is scaling up as banks look for alternatives to US dollar-backed crypto payment rails. Qivalis said on 20 May it added 25 banks, lifting membership to 37 institutions across 15 countries. The move comes as USDT and USDC continue to dominate global stablecoin liquidity, while euro stablecoin circulation remains comparatively limited.

Wintermute said a recent Bitcoin move higher was largely powered by leverage and short covering, not strong spot buying, and that renewed macro worries are now weighing on digital assets. Bitcoin fell 5.7% for the week after briefly trading above $82,000, while Ethereum dropped more than 10%, alongside nearly $657 million in liquidations over the weekend.